Innovation: Apple patents hint at tablet's technology

Innovation is our regular column that highlights emerging technological ideas and where they may lead

UPDATE&colon; Apple launched its iPad on 27 January. It’s too early to say which of the patents below have been harnessed in its design, but as we predicted the firm has certainly given the new product more multi-touch features than the iPhone. A video shows examples of the interface in use.

History looks set to repeat itself tomorrow when a US firm will attempt to reinvent personal computing and encourage us to use touch-controlled “tablets” in place of keyboards and mice – or so strong rumours suggest.

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But can Apple of Cupertino, California, do it more successfully than Microsoft did when it tried the same thing in 2003? Many reports are focussing on Apple taking on the book, textbook and newspaper markets with the device it is expected to unveil. Others suggest a major market will be gaming. But anyone with experience of tablet computers past – I trialled one in 2003 – will tell you that the most important thing for the firm to get right is the user interface.

The earlier tablets were fun, but the novelty wore off too quickly. Most of them were simply laptops that allowed you to twist the screen 180 degrees and fold it over the keyboard, making them heavy. And the stylus-centric touchscreen interaction just wasn’t compelling enough. But a rash of patents filed by Apple suggest that going the next step beyond the iPhone’s once-revolutionary touch interface may just be part of the plan for any tablet it launches.

Hover or touch

In filing US 2008/0158167 the firm explains that hovering over an onscreen element, for example a character in a game, can activate it, perhaps allowing a different function to a straightforward touch.

US patent 7,643,011 granted on 5 January, provides details of a method to ensure a screen’s ability to differentiate a touch from a hover isn’t affected by electrical noise.

If used in the new tablet, this technology could allow users twice as many touchscreen functions as they get on an iPhone, say. And that could be great for gameplay.

Peck no more

Of course, a tablet needs a virtual keyboard. But simply pecking at a flat piece of glass on the Tablet PC was no fun at all. In US patent application 2008/0316183 Apple suggests that quick swiping gestures can be used to do the jobs of certain keys, for example the space bar, backspace, caps shift and carriage return.

Another patent filing mentioning applications to tablet computers covers a “gesture dictionary”, in which certain hand shapes can be pressed against the screen to flip the device into different modes. For example, a spread-fingered hand might open up a new email or drawing program.

Those “chords” could form “an entirely new gesture language [to] convey complex meaning and commands”, the patent explains.

It sounds an interesting non-keyboard approach – especially in a year when even Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer is predicting non-keyboard input methods, such as the voice, are set to become more popular.

We’ll see tomorrow if these chords will form a part of Apple’s latest tune.